Late February is the time of year when teams want to be playing their best basketball, and the Towson Tigers men's basketball team did just that Thursday night, beating the Elon Phoenix 58-56 in a nail-biter.
WATCH: Towson Tigers beat Elon 58-56 in late-season nail-biter
Towson hosted Elon as both teams entered the matchup with identical 14-14 records and 6-9 conference records heading into the final stretch of the college basketball regular season.
Thursday's game was a back-and-forth slugfest between the CAA opponents. Towson led for the majority of the game, but their biggest lead was only 6. The Tigers took a 26-22 lead into halftime.
In the second half, Elon came out swinging and built their biggest lead of the game at 7, but Towson fought back. Fifth-year senior Tyler Coleman stepped up with 17 points and several key plays in the second half to give the Tigers both life and the lead.
With the game tied at 56 and the clock under 20 seconds, it was Jack Dumbia who answered the bell, driving baseline with the shot clock winding down and dropping in the bucket to give Towson a 2-point lead.
Elon had one last chance with only 0.8 seconds on the clock but could not connect on a desperation lob, sealing the win for the Tigers.
"Our fans and our athletic administration making that happen, that was a big difference, you know, it was a tractor pull. He's had a good year for us, you know, it's always in this day and age when a guy sticks around for 5 years, it's good to see them get rewarded with some playing time and then some success. In a year that's been a little bit of a roller coaster at times, he's had some good moments for us, so I'm happy for him."
Up next for Towson is senior night this Saturday at 2 p.m. against Campbell.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
